Blitz, a movie by Steve McQueen, with Saoirse Ronan

Showing all posts tagged: Saoirse Ronan

Blitz, a movie by Steve McQueen, with Saoirse Ronan

18 November 2024

I’ve ended up seeing a stack of movies featuring Irish-American actor Saoirse Ronan, over the years. Tracking all the way back to Atonement in 2007, I think. Maybe I’m not so much of a Ronan fan, as I am the movies she’s in.

But it’s an impressive list of titles. The Lovely Bones, The Way Back, Hanna, Violet & Daisy, The Host, How I Live Now, The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by Wes Anderson, Brooklyn, On Chesil Beach, Ammonite, The French Dispatch, again, directed by Wes Anderson, and finally, Foe. It could be then, I am as much a fan of Ronan, as the films she’s in.

Curiously, her latest film, Blitz, trailer, directed by British filmmaker Steve McQueen, and has some eerie parallels with Atonement. Both include World War II settings in London, and tube stations, where civilians sheltered during Nazi bomb raids.

Blitz screened as part of this year’s British Film Festival, along with another title starring Ronan, The Outrun, directed by Nora Fingscheidt. Talk about prolific output.

Trailer for Foe, a film by Garth Davis, with Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal

11 September 2023

Still from Foe, a film by Garth Davis.

Foe, trailer, a science fiction psychological thriller, is the third feature of Australian filmmaker Garth Davis. Based on the 2018 novel of the same name, by Canadian author Iain Reid, and set in 2065, Foe tells the story of a married couple Hen (Saoirse Ronan), and Junior (Paul Mescal), who work on a secluded farm. Their lives, and happy marriage, are thrown into turmoil though when a stranger, Terrance (Aaron Pierre), arrives unannounced one day and informs them that Junior is to be sent to a space station for a year.

Hen however will not be left alone, a robot will be sent to keep her company during Junior’s absence. Terrance’s proposal, and the prospect of a human-like robot living with Hen for a year, quickly places a strain on the couple’s relationship. Foe, which opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 2 November 2023, is certainly an intriguing conceit. What is behind Terrance turning up at the farm in the first place, and why is Junior required to spend a year living in space?

Ronan’s work speaks for itself, while Mescal’s recent performances include starring in Aftersun, and Normal People, a TV mini-series adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name.

Update: Transmission Films advises that Foe opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 2 November 2023.